Do you think a plain old analog serial modem can be used as a phone line ring detector with Vera?
My idea is to create a plugin that will recognize the RING messages that the modem generates when there’s an incoming call, to trigger a vera event.
It may be even possible to send vera the phone # of the incoming call (with a caller ID enabled modem).
Has anyone tried this already?
Any suggestions?
Interesting idea. 
Should work, see [tt]http://www.dual-comm.com/USB_Caller_ID_Modem.htm[/tt].
For European users who are using a Fritz!Box, [tt]FCM[/tt] is the Luup plugin to use.
That should be possible, many people do that with other systems. You would have to send the modem an appropriate AT command to turn on caller ID (something like AT#CID=1 but modem specific).
You should be able to hook the modem up to Vera with a usb to serial adapter.
@drag0n, I am buying an old US Robotics serial modem off ebay to test this out with. The 5686 series are really cheap right now (5686D models going for a couple of bucks and getting more expensive as you get to the newest 5686G). It looks like these support caller ID.
The link that @Ap15e posted too looks interesting as well, but I’m trying to stick to serial when I can. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Just got my 5686E serial modem in the mail today. I’ll be hooking it up and seeing if I can get ring detection / caller ID working. Hopefully that will be pretty easy.
So turns out I the modem I bought was bad. 
I did a bit more research and decided to go with someone I could drive over USB (one less wall wart!)
I now have a Dell USB modem on order which is based on the Conexant CX93010 chipset. Supposedly works in Linux and has CID support. The device linked to by @Ap15e looks suspiciously like the generic Conexant CX93010 modems sold on ebay for ~$10, I think it might be just a rebranded one. I found the Dell version I’m ordering for about $10 as well, I just am hoping it is a bit better quality than the chinese versions.
I’ll try it with the PhoneTray software when it arrives.
Ok, so the third times a charm! It turns out that newer Conexant CX93010 based modems are broken. They are supposed to support CID but they don’t. There is lots of traffic about this on various forums. Of course, I didn’t see that until I ordered the darn thing.
So I had:
- USR 5686E (broken)
- Dell Modem RD02-D400 (based on Conexant CX93010), broken CID support
- Sewell Direcdt Accelerator 2 Port 56K USB 2.0 Modem (working!)
This modem was $12.95 with free shipping from ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130566617635?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
Overall I spend ~$35 on three cheap modems to get the one that worked. I think I’ll use the dell to send faxes so it isn’t a complete loss I suppose. But I could have just purchased a nice one down the street and saved myself all the aggravation… That is what I get for being cheap >:(
And here is my test of CID (run on OSX):
user$ screen /dev/tty.usbmodem24680241 9600[code]ATZ
OK
AT+VCID=1
OK
AT+VCID?
1
OK
RING
DATE = 0316
TIME = 1719
NMBR = XXXXXXXXXX (my number!)
NAME = XXXX XXXX (my name!)
RING[/code]
I imagine this could be hooked up straight to vera and used as a serial port. Not sure if that is what I am going to do yet, I’ll probably use a pogoplug. Maybe with this project: http://ncid.sourceforge.net/
[quote=“radarengineer, post:7, topic:170586”]1. USR 5686E (broken)
2. Dell Modem RD02-D400 (based on Conexant CX93010), broken CID support
3. Sewell Direcdt Accelerator 2 Port 56K USB 2.0 Modem (working!)[/quote]
I am replying here to this very old thread only because this very same thread is being referenced on the Wikipedia page for NCID. It says that the USR 5868E modem is “broken” with NCID which is erroneous, to say the least.
radarengineer describes his 5686E as being broken and not as a compatibility issue between his modem and NCID.
I am using a 5868E (I scored 4 of them when cleaning out old technology from a large restaurant chain’s 4 locations.) My 5868E work brilliantly with NCID, without a single fault, and thats even behind a USB to serial adapter which I figured would be buggy at the least… NOT SO! WORKS GREAT!
set initcid = "AT#CID=1"
I used the above to get it running!
Now off to the Wikipedia page for updates… thanks you guys, some of the suggestions posted here helped to get it running.